Jack Ashby
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jackdashby.bsky.social
Jack Ashby
@jackdashby.bsky.social
3.1K followers 280 following 660 posts
Award-winning author #PlatypusMatters & #NaturesMemory. Assistant Director of @ZoologyMuseum.bsky.social at Cambridge Uni. President of the Society for the History of Natural History. Australian mammal nerd. He/him. Own views.
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jackdashby.bsky.social
Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · Nov 13
OK here I go. Expect posts about the wonderful world of Australian mammals, the quirks of natural history museums, and chasing beasts around the place.
jackdashby.bsky.social
NICE! What a flipping lovely review of #NaturesMemory. And a lovely way to end the week!😊
"Inspired and inspiring... With Nature’s Memory, Ashby makes a vital contribution to the literature on the history of natural history #museums and collections, and critical museology and decolonizing practice."
farsouthhistory.bsky.social Daniella M. @farsouthhistory.bsky.social · 1d
Check out Kristan M. Hanson's review of @jackdashby.bsky.social's "Nature's Memory: Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History
Museums," published in 2025 by Allen Lane; review now available @hnetreviews.bsky.social #envhist #envhum #histsci
www.h-net.org/reviews/show...
www.h-net.org
November 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Curator: Please can you make me a #taxidermy koala? 🐨
Taxidermist: Sure. Any pointers for what you want it to be doing or how it looks?
Curator: Yes, since you've asked, could you give it a pot-belly, and make it scratch it?
Taxidermist: 🫡
A very rotund taxidermy koala at the Haus der Natur in Salzburg. It is mounted upright on a branch, with one hand scratching its rounded belly. Its expression is the kind of face you'd pull while staring into the middle distance, lost in the satisfaction of a good scratch
November 21, 2025 at 7:55 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Be honest, could you tell this was a diorama?
Haus der Natur in #Salzburg uses many tricks to make viewers believe they're seeing a wild scene: high-quality #taxidermy, outstanding background painting with perspective to give depth, and hiding the point where the painting meets the 3D foreground. 🐐
A male (taxidermy) ibex emerges from behind (fake) rocks in front of a vast (painted) mountain panorama of nearby cliffs and distant valleys
November 20, 2025 at 8:01 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
THIS IS TONIGHT! Grab a free ticket if you're around #Cambridge and are curious about what natural history #museums get up to.
sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social Sedgwick Museum @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social · 3d
Sedgwick Museum Lates: Behind the Scenes uncovered

Free, 18+ evening event.
Thursday 20th November, 6-9pm

Delve into our work behind the scenes. Featuring @jackdashby.bsky.social ‘in conversation’ as we discuss his book ‘Nature’s Memory, Behind The Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums’.
A drawer of rocks. There are rocks of many colours from grey to orange to red to purple. They are arranged in a gradient. A drawer of shells. Most are spiral shells of a white colour sitting against the blue colour of the bottom of the drawer.
November 20, 2025 at 7:51 AM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
chrismay.bsky.social
Surprisingly true.
jackdashby.bsky.social Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 24d
As Samuel Johnson - perhaps the most accomplished wordsmith ever - said, "When a man is tired of #wombats, he is tired of life".

#WombatWednesday #fieldwork #Tasmania #wombat #MammalWatching #WildOz
A wombat, looking sleepy, stood on a large button-grass tussock in bright sunshine
October 29, 2025 at 5:01 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at #wombats, as I think Oscar Wilde once said.
#WombatWednesday #Tasmania #MammalWatching #WildOz #wombat
A grey wombat walks towards the camera on a bed of light green grass with patches of deep green ferns
November 19, 2025 at 7:32 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Another day, another overstuffed #platypus 😍
Meet The #Fattypus of Salzburg.
A very rotund taxidermy platypus on a beige shelf
November 18, 2025 at 7:54 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
In #museums we get to help a lot of people with their work (our collections are here to be studied, and researchers are also often interested in the practices we develop) - it turns out I had 290 research visitors or enquiries in 24/25! 🤓
Here's a word cloud of what they were interested in:
A word-cloud with the following words featuring particularly highly: Colonial History Humanitues thylacines AI Platypus Display
November 17, 2025 at 3:57 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
CALLING ALL #CAMBRIDGE MUSEUM & NATURAL HISTORY NERDS!
This Thursday, the fabulous @sedgwickmuseum.bsky.social opens late for "Behind the Scenes Uncovered" - alongside a bunch of cool activities, I'll be doing an "in-conversation" about my book #NaturesMemory.
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sedgwick-m...
Sedgwick Museum Lates: Behind the Scenes Uncovered
Explore the Museum in an atmospheric evening setting, as we share our work and collections behind the scenes.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 9:43 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Climbing up above #Salzburg - through the low blanket of cloud and fog - brought rewards of stunning views, a spattering of snow, and a few chamois in their thick, dark winter coats. 🐐
#MammalWatching #WildAustria
A steep wooded slope in thick mist, with a hint of blue sky above, and a thick layer of autumn leaves on the ground A mountain scene with bright blue sky and a dusting of snow A cloud inversion - mountain ridges poke through a fluffy layer of cloud, under a bright blue sky A steep slope with browning grass and rocks and a layer of pine trees. A dark brown chamois stands by one of the trees
November 17, 2025 at 8:05 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
I've raided some of my #fieldguide shelves for a little consultancy project this weekend. 📚 It's a good excuse to look at books covering different parts of the world together (plus a first proper dive into @jimlabisko.bsky.social's GORGEOUS new #Frog book 🐸)
Fieldguides covering birds and mammals from Australia, Europe, Africa, North America and India. Plus "The Lives of Frogs - A Natural History" by Jim Labisco and Richard Griffiths
November 15, 2025 at 5:06 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Some people visit historic cabinets of curiosities for the sense of Enlightenment wonder, some for the exquisite displays of incredible specimens and artefacts. Me? It's all about the #CrapTaxidermy.
I'm guessing this little beauty is doing its best to be a leopard cat. St Peter's Abbey in #Salzburg
A cabinet of black wood, with a gold grille over the glass, displaying artefacts carved from ibex horn. A giant clam and elk horn are on the floor below A close-up of a cabinet with a gold grille,containing taxidermy reptiles, fishes, and starfish A cabinet of black wood, with a gold grille over the glass, displaying corals A truly terrible taxidermy cat with spots. It has been absurdly stretched. It has yellow goggly eyes and a open mouth
November 14, 2025 at 8:17 AM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
stevetypesstuff.bsky.social
Great talk by @jackdashby.bsky.social at the @linneansociety.bsky.social .

If you have not read ‘Nature’s Memory’ yet it would be a great gift for Christmas [or select end of year festival of your choice].

An entertaining and thought provoking read.

#museums
The cover of ‘Nature’s Memory. Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums’ by Jack Ashby with a beautiful green snail with a yellow stripe.
November 13, 2025 at 10:06 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Natural history museum fans (and skeptics) - this is in 24 hours time: there's still time to book! 🎟️
November 12, 2025 at 6:19 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Up in the Tasmanian highlands, a little #wombat grazes in the driving snow, braced against the wind.
#WombatWednesday #Tasmania #MammalWatching #wombats #WildOz
With its body hunched up and its head turned against the wind, a wombat grazes on a small clear patch of vegetation on a slope of snow. Snowflakes can be seen being blown horizontally across the photo.
November 12, 2025 at 7:53 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
What does a snowflake moray eel have in common with an adorable egg-laying, anteating Australian mammal?
They are both #echidnas! The scientific name of the eel is #Echidna. Ékhidna means "viper" in Ancient Greek, which makes sense for a snake-shaped fish, but is more confusing for the mammal.
A preserved eel in a long tall jar. The specimen is evenly patched with black and brown. The label below reads: "Echidna nebuliser (Ahl) Netzmürane Pazifik" (On display at the Natural History Museum in Vienna) A wild echidna - a dark brown spiny animal with a pointy anteating snout - stood amongst grass and ferns
November 11, 2025 at 7:31 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
ON THURSDAY I'll be at @linneansociety.bsky.social to chat about whether natural history #museums really represent nature, how they talk about their own [sometimes troubling] histories, & how they help save the world: the 3 themes of my book #NaturesMemory. Come!
www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/natures-me...
Nature’s Memory | Behind the Scenes at the World’s Natural History Museums
Get an insider guide to the secrets of natural history museums, as we consider how they shape our society and relationship with nature.
www.eventbrite.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Obviously it's sad when historic #taxidermy cracks, but it can show you how these specimens were converted from flat, treated skins to stand "alive" again. Here, the crack in this rhino at @nhmwien.bsky.social reveals an inner cage of willow beams. 🦏
A cracked rhino taxidermy surrounded by other taxidermy specimens. The crack shows tightly arranged horizontal wooden branches. [NB the horns are fakes] A close-up of of the cracked rhino skin, showing tightly arranged horizontal wooden branches.
November 6, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
devoevomed.bsky.social
Don’t you want to just scratch that little spot behind thier adorable ears‽
jackdashby.bsky.social Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 18d
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
Head and shoulders of a thylacine reclining Vienna's thylacine specimen, posed lying down with its head up, and no teeth bared Vienna's thylacine specimen, posed lying down with its head up, and no teeth bared Vienna's thylacine specimen, posed lying down with its head up, and no teeth bared
November 5, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
skylacine.bsky.social
My gateway thylacine specimen

Aka the first one I ever saw at a museum that unlocked my love of the species
jackdashby.bsky.social Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 18d
An absolutely stunning #thylacine at @nhmwien.bsky.social, which hasn't been posed to convey the impression that #thylacines were dangerous or threatening in the way that so many other #taxidermy specimens do. That idea was central to the false claim that they threatened #Tasmania's sheep industry.
Head and shoulders of a thylacine reclining Vienna's thylacine specimen, posed lying down with its head up, and no teeth bared Vienna's thylacine specimen, posed lying down with its head up, and no teeth bared Vienna's thylacine specimen, posed lying down with its head up, and no teeth bared
November 5, 2025 at 7:17 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Only four #taxidermy bluebuck are known in #museums (Paris, Leiden, Stockholm, Vienna): the only large mammal species to become extinct in Africa in recent centuries. Bluebuck disappeared in ~1800.
(It feels weird to know I've seen them all - the only physical evidence of what bluebuck looked like)
A bluebuck specimen in the stores at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. It's a large beige antelope with long thin curving horns). The specimen is surrounded by many other taxidermy mammals
November 5, 2025 at 2:20 PM
jackdashby.bsky.social
Excited to be at the Haus der Nature in Salzburg today, talking through some of my reflections on what natural history #museums have been up to for the last couple of centuries, and why that's important for how we think of them today.
The opening image for Symbiosis showing a natural history museum workshop in the 1950s A conference paper blurb. It reads miorld's Natural History Museums Past, Present and Future Panel 06 Chair: John Holmes University of Birmingham Jack Ashby Cambridge University Museum of Zoology Nature's Memory: Panel 06- WED 5 NOV 2025 - 9:15 Jack Ashby NATURE'S MEMORY Bemnd the Scene at the World, Natuiral Hustor Museum Behind the Scenes at the World's Natural History Museums Jack Ashby's new book, Nature's Memory shares hidden stories behind the world's iconic natural history museums, from enormous mounted whale skeletons to cabinets of impossibly tiny insects Look closely and all is not as it seems: these museums are not as natural as we might think. Mammals dominate the displays, for example, even though they make up less than 1 percent of species; there are many more male specimens than females; and often a museum's most popular draw - the dinosaur skeletons - are not actually real. Over 99 percent of museum collections are held in im- mense, unseen storehouses. And it's becoming clear that these institutions have not been as honest about their complex histories as they should be. Yet it is also just starting to be understood that their vast collections are indispensable resources in the fight against biodiversity loss and climate catastrophe. In this talk, Jack will share stories from the three main themes of the book How well do natural history museums really represent nature, how did they really come together and how can they help save the world? Part of the whale warehouse at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum Support Centre 22 SYMBIOSIS 2025
November 5, 2025 at 8:12 AM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
themuseumofliz.bsky.social
Here's another Bernissart Iguanodon 'sibling' in the Senckenberg Museum, #Frankfurt, this time remounted to show its more correct life quadripedal position
#dinosaur
Skeleton of a dinosaurs on four legs
November 4, 2025 at 5:53 AM
Reposted by Jack Ashby
jordancollver.bsky.social
I particularly enjoy thinking about this with bats and whales - cousins who have evolved in completely "opposite directions" of scale and habitat, yet both independently arrived at echolocation.
jackdashby.bsky.social Jack Ashby @jackdashby.bsky.social · 18d
Little and large.
I really like this display at @nhmwien.bsky.social showing the size difference between the biggest and smallest #mammals, with a single #whale vertebra alongside a tiny shrew.
A whale vertebra and taxidermy shrew. The label reads (translated from German): "Giants and Dwarfs Mammals have achieved great diversity in form and also they have evolved gigantic forms like whales (the blue whale weighs 130 tons) but also tiny species like the pygmy shrew (4 grams).
November 4, 2025 at 10:19 AM
jackdashby.bsky.social
The largest ever turtle - 74-million-year-old Archelon - really was quite large. (@themuseumofliz.bsky.social for scale) 🐢
On display at @nhmwien.bsky.social
Liz Hide inspecting a huge fossil turtle - around the size of a car
November 4, 2025 at 1:30 PM